journal

welcome to NJ pt. 2

2010-08-16T09:01:58Z

click 'er for biggerApparently it was a slow day. Or more likely the officer was new to the job and needed some experience. Details of my encounter with the CSX police can be found here. I was warned because I was supposedly within 24 feet of a railroad track. This photo is pretty good evidence that I was on the edge of the road, probably about 25 feet away from the track that runs down the middle of a public road. But who's quibbling? Believe it or not, the railroad was not what I was photographing. I probably won't be returning to South Kearny, N.J. any time soon.

another instance of my inability to conform

2010-08-14T13:48:44Z

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This is a photograph that could benefit from an audio component. Or at least it would make the reality of its nature more immediate. But as I wrestle with what it is that I want to do with a motion picture capture device, it is fairly obvious that what "typically" works is not a collection of still images, even complimented with sound. The question that is posed by director Peter Watkins in his critique of the media and film making, is whether we can find other means of communication through visual media that transcends the hegemony of the three act structure of virtually all story telling.

This extreme crisis for global civil society AND for the environment, falls into six principal areas under examination: • the role of the American MAVM [Mass Audio Visual Media], with their disastrous impact on global politics, social life, and culture • the somewhat less obvious, but equally dangerous role of the MAVM in most other countries • the role of global media educators (encouraging young people to enter the mass media as acquiescent professionals, or to accept the mass media as passive consumers) • the role of film festivals and of film makers themselves • the complex role of the counter-culture movement • the role of the public.

Crucial to Watkins' analysis of the MAVM is his examination of the Monoform:

To explain to new readers: The MONOFORM is the internal language-form (editing, narrative structure, etc.) used by TV and the commercial cinema to present their messages. It is the densely packed and rapidly edited barrage of images and sounds, the 'seamless' yet fragmented modular structure which we all know so well. This language-form appeared early on in the cinema, with the work of pioneers such as D.W.Griffith, and others who developed techniques of rapid editing, montage, parallel action, cutting between long shots/close shots, etc. Now it also includes dense layers of music, voice and sound effects, abrupt cutting for shock effect, emotion-arousing music saturating every scene, rhythmic dialogue patterns, and endlessly moving cameras.

He proposes alternative ways of viewing (see especially this section of his statement), and that the entire process of media production become more democratic through subjects and audiences becoming involved and a part of the means of communication. After all, the word implies some sort of two way process, rather than the simple passivity of a silent audience in a cinema or on the couch in the living room.

Can a lone landscape photographer find a way through this minefield?

power people

2010-08-12T13:09:06Z

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Perhaps time to find out where they go? In our case, the coal fields of south Virginia and West Virginia.

being neighborly

2010-08-10T12:35:34Z

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As flat as this composition might seem, there is a density to it that reallty draws me in. It says a lot about where we live. The four man made objects in the man made landscape attempt to exert their presence over the surrounding vegetation. But there is little doubt that those four objects and the infrastructure they represent have a limited lifespan that will require constant maintanence.

more pieces to the puzzle

2010-08-08T11:00:43Z

Maybe it's already obvious to everybody else, but the proper methodology - aka "workflow" - for getting files from flash card based video cameras or DSLRs into editing software, specifically Final Cut Pro, has eluded me. If you don't already know it, DO NOT simply drag & drop files from the cards to the hard disk. When trying to open them later in FCP, in the Log & Transfer window, the software will report an unsupported file type. The entire file structure needs to be copied off the card.

If using a DSLR such as the Canon 5D MkII or 7D, Canon has created a utility for FCP which helps with the correct settings and the use of the Log & Transfer function, and supposedly transcodes the original H.264 codec to Apple ProRes (or whatever editing codec you want) at three times the speed that Compressor will do this operation. Canon suggests using the Mac Disk Utility to first mount the card as a disk image on the hard disk.

Very preliminary use shows that another method, which seems much simpler, is to select in a Finder window the folder on the card that contains the files that need to be copied off the memory card, go to Edit/Copy, then open the folder on the hard disk where they need to be placed and go to Edit/Paste. Once again, Drag & Drop doesn't work, but copy & paste does.

In the case of the Canon camera(s), there is a directory called eos_digital with a subdirectory called dcim. When using Log & Transfer, open the dcim directory to find the copied files. Choosing any directory lower than this results in the Unsupported media message.

This way the files can be opened from the hard disk, and the memory cards can be reformatted and used again for new material. As an added benefit, cards can be copied to a portable hard disk such as the Photo Safe II, and then transferred later to a computer.

The Photo Safe has no display other than digital readout for functions, so is really only a small portable hard disk with card readers connected. When travelling no computer is needed to download memory cards. I've not really used this much yet, but with a summer vacation under way, it seems the perfect solution to the checked bag luggage problem. The primary issue appears to be the transfer speed from card to Photo Safe: they claim a 1 gig card takes 3-1/2 minutes, so my 16 g cards are going to take nearly an hour. Photo Safe to computer runs at USB 2.0 speed.

If anyone using the Canon 7D and FCP has a simpler way of getting video files off the compact flash cards, I'd love to hear about it.

gone

2010-08-07T03:59:28Z

click 'er for biggerSite's on autopilot for a week while we travel. I'll check in if I can find access.

beware

2010-08-04T12:12:52Z

click 'er for biggerObviously this one didn't make it. Unfortunately, a common end for these ancient reptiles.

At this time of year, these guys - Terrapene carolina - are occasionally seen crossing the thoroughfares. Since their habitats are usually only 200 m. in diameter and have become so fragmented, it's not surprising that they may be seen trying to cross a road. And since they mostly live in the grass and forest leaves and dead trees, it's not likely we'll see them anywhere but on the roads. They don't stand much of a chance against vehicular challengers, so I make a point of lifting them out of the way and helping them on their journey. It's best to move them across the road, because removal from their locale will spur them to engage their homing instincts to return to their natal grounds, possibly searching unsystematically for the rest of their long lives. A thirty or forty year life span is not uncommon for this species, and it's believed some have survived to 80. But long term survival prospects look dim due to habitat destruction, slow growth rates for individuals, as well as slow reproduction (a female may lay 100 eggs in a lifetime, but it's estimated only 2 - 3 will reach maturity.)

Read more about Eastern Box Turtles here.

Here's one I moved out of the way recently while walking in Loftlands.

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howdy, pardner

2010-08-01T15:20:12Z

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A fine and dandy how-do to one and all on this gray Sunday morning, finally some respite from the July heat.

wondering - or is it wandering

2010-07-27T10:46:46Z

How Cats Do Laundry from Man Made Wilderness on Vimeo.

The time function for these kinds of things is still all out of proportion for the result. But learning new bits and means of expression is stimulating, at the very least. The point was to try to put something together in a day. I almost made the deadline. Pieces were recorded on Sunday, and by that evening I had some kind of an assembly put together. But it was another day to lay in the music, edit the picture to half it's original length, compress the file for Vimeo standards, and then upload.

BTW: all hand held with the Canon 7D using the live view. It's getting a little easier...

Oh, and it was H-O-T this past Sunday, in case you couldn't feel it.

confusion reigns

2010-07-19T21:48:58Z

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Better? Nahhh... Different... A whole lot of buttons and batteries. But I don't really want to write about camera technology. Of the thirty or forty exposures I took late this afternoon a week ago, trying to find what my 3 pints to the wind brain could comprehend, this one - at about the end of the series - is probably the best. Not too bad for being drunk. I don't usually combine drinking and photography, and I don't think I would recommend it, even to myself. But having a camera at hand was an interesting way to burn off some alchohol before I needed to drive home.